This month, Pastor Jeff Simmons has a timely and challenging conversation with Pastor Wayne McCullough from Limestone Baptist Church in Franklin, TN, about race, racism, reconciliation, and the Gospel.

Pastor Wayne was born and raised in Franklin. His mother was a believer and raised him to love and trust the Lord. Pastor Wayne grew up in Franklin when the city was still largely segregated but attended high school at the very beginning of desegregation. He’s a graduate of Tennessee State University and has dual degrees in Accounting and Business Administration. Pastor Wayne retired from Kroger as District Manager with 38 years of service. While at Kroger, he held several positions in Human Resources, Operations, and Merchandising. It wasn’t until October of 2000 that he began pastoring Limestone Baptist Church.

In the podcast, Pastor Wayne shares his experience of growing up in a segregated community and the transition to a desegregated high school. He addresses that what we are taught affects how we experience life and how we treat others of different races; however, we all have to make a choice about how we will treat those who are different from us. The Gospel must shape our understanding of race and should lead us to see and call racism what it is at its root. Because racism at any level is a sin, to hold hatred in our hearts towards anyone created in God’s image is a sin. Pastor Wayne also speaks to our current political climate and gives a handful of practical steps for every Christian.

This conversation will encourage you, challenge you, and call you to faithfulness and obedience to God’s Word as we live in the time God has given us and as we learn what it means to love God and love others.

Next Steps

1. Are there sinful attitudes or actions that God has exposed in your heart that he is calling you to confess and repent of?
2. For those who have placed their faith in Christ, what does it mean that, before anything else, our identity and our title is Christian? Not husband, dad, banker, mechanic, student, Democrat or Republican, but Christian – a child of God, a follower of Christ, saved by grace. How would this bring real change to the racial tension in our culture today?